Successful Writing Techniques to Use For Guest Posts On Popular Blogs
Most Successful Writing Techniques
Want to know the one word that makes humans powerful? It’s – networking.
Guest blogging is as close as it comes to networking online for copywriters and at ClickDo Ltd. we use it constantly to grow our blogs and websites.
If you manage to land a guest post on a high-profile website, it can truly give your author profile and website a massive boost on search engines. See some of my example guest posts that increased our ranks here:
Top 7 Ways to be in control of your kids online safety
How The UK Government Should Nominate The Winner Of The Best Early Years Learning App Competition
Many of these guest posts and infographic submissions have enabled me to rank the UK Education Blog at the top on Google (snapshot was taken 04/10/20):
How did I do it? Read on and you’ll find out.
There are two types of guest bloggers:
- those who aimlessly use the same pitch for every blog offering guest posts, and
- those who send out a personalized pitch depending on the blog.
Don’t be the former.
Your diligence while writing a guest post for a blog will ensure a flow of opportunities from similar high traffic sites. This, in turn, will increase the viewership on your website but only if you follow these writing techniques compiled to put you in the running with the rest of the successful bloggers.
1. Understand the Blog’s Unique Voice
You would have obviously found blogs related to your niche, but have you noticed the unique voice of different blogs? Understanding this is your best bet for creating high-quality content. That’s how you make the editorial team of the blog like you.
Take some time to read through the recent blogs posted on the website and pay attention to the tone. Check if it is friendly and creative or straightforward and to the point.
Once you’ve understood the voice of the blog, begin writing, and you’ll have multiplied your prospects of being published. Websites with heavy traffic also get a number of guest posts and their filtering process is primarily based on what’s best for their blog.
Give them what they resonate with and try to find the person in charge and email them directly.
2. Submission Guidelines are your Cheat Sheet
If you’ve been blogging for a while, you’d know that blogs that accept guest posts have a set of submission guidelines and reading through it will make all the difference. Check out HubSpot’s submission guidelines or the London Business News guidelines to understand the expectations the editorial team has from guest bloggers. The guidelines will give you an idea of the prerequisites and standards for guest posting on that particular blog. Ensure your writing reflects every guideline listed by the blog.
3. Write for the Blog’s Readership
This is one of the most important points, so pay close attention.
The blog you hope to guest post for will have a specific audience and catering to them must be your priority. Most guest post guidelines insist you must write for your readers first but if your writing fails to intrigue the main readership then your effort will circle down the drain.
It is wise to remember that a guest post is first read by the blog’s viewers, so mold your writing to appeal not just to your readers but the blog’s as well.
4. A List Blog gets the most attention
Readers are only after quick information that they can skim through without delving too much into the details. This is why list posts are a real money maker in the blogging industry. If you need a better idea of how list posts work, give Listverse a read.
Your secret to SEO copywriting success is in the form of short sentences with valid information in bullet points, using relevant keywords repeatedly, but in different ways. This is what makes most readers stick around until the end of the blog. If you’ve paid attention to the first three techniques, then curating a list post will not only be easy but also help you stand out from the rest.
At ClickDo we also use list posts successfully on the blogs I manage or as guest post submissions as you can see here:
Top 35 Canary Wharf Restaurants: Best Places to Eat & Drink After Work
5. Quality and Quantity go hand in hand
You may have noticed websites stressing on the need for quantity when it comes to guest posting but the quality is what will ensure their shelf life.
Guest posting is known to be the best way of gaining viewers and your motto should be quality with quantity. To begin with quality, you must strike a balance between what you want to talk about and what your viewers want to learn.
Once you manage to produce purely relevant content that gets a wide viewership you can move on to quantity. On average you should be able to put out a minimum of 2 to 3 posts every week with a word count of at least 800+. Writing strong pieces of content on a regular basis will help you stay on top of your game.
The more you write, the more you will be read but only if your content maintains a high standard.
6. Use an Article Closing Strategy
The main agenda towards guest posting is to gain referral traffic and many rely on their bios for that which is a huge mistake. A marketing strategist Gregory Ciotti recognized ‘byline blindness’ as a common issue among readers of popular blogs.
The Internet is filled with guest posts which have led to readers overlooking who has written the blog. Even you must have read a dozen blogs without even noticing the name of the author.
The main danger here is that you might not get any traffic your way, making the guest post worthless. Ciotti formulated a 3-step article closing strategy to overcome this problem.
He advises three elements that you should include in your guest post namely:
- closing subheadings
- questioning the readers, and
- using a call to action.
Your first step is closing subheadings, which means you need to make your conclusion obvious. This can be done by using phrases like ‘Now it’s your turn’ or ‘The ball is in your court’. The next thing is to interact with your readers and ask them questions related to your post. Your final step is to place a CTA (call of action) to ensure your readers make their way to your site.
All you have to do is keep at it, the more content you send out, the more views will come your way. If you’re a blogger in the education niche, then you can reach out to some selected education blogs accepting guest posts you can find here:
Top 15 Education and Student Blogs accepting your Guest Post
If you’re a student blogger or finance/frugal lifestyle blogger, check these blogs out for possible guest blogging gigs:
You can talk to me about guest blogging – I am more than happy to help any blogger out there and offer guest posting opportunities and advice.
I’m a teacher and blogger with a passion for web content writing and the digital economy. I’m a UK education blogger and regularly write for businesses, edit and audit their websites and blogs. I also manage blog content and guest posts on various niche blogs like the UK News Blog. I’m a writer at
elearningindustry.com.
with gin and topped with lavender foam. I am in love; I feel free looking out to London’s ever-changing but continuously impressive skyline.
I see an empty boat passing and I wonder how I will make it through this isolation period. Thankfully, I have so many pleasurable experiences to go back to, so many amazing people I can have a drink with in virtual meetings. And I have my main work tool with me all the time so that I can write, communicate and record everything I do – my laptop & smartphone.
there certainly will come a time where I can live the